Tophome cams

Among them is David Doyle, from Manchester, who was in his car when he was smashed into at a road junction by a driver who ran through a red light.

The camera instantly showed the police that he was not to blame, and Mr Doyle says the camera has another benefit.

As with any accident, the officers had to keep an open mind as to whose fault it had been.

But in this instance they were armed with a powerful piece of evidence that showed exactly where the blame lay – video footage from Mr Pettifor's dashboard camera, or 'dash cam'.'The police saw it right there and then and they instantly knew it was not my fault,' says Mr Pettifor.

An AXA spokesman said: 'If a claim is settled on a 'non-fault' basis, your no claims discount is unaffected and your insurer can usually recover your policy excess – this could you save hundreds of pounds.'The group's underwriting director, Gary Humphreys, said: 'Dash cams save us a huge amount of time.

With a normal claim, it can take us about eight to 12 weeks to exchange details with the other insurer, and to agree liability.

Although car crashes can often be traumatic, many people find that the bureaucratic aftermath can be even more upsetting.

Dash cams, with their unimpeachable record of any incident, are therefore becoming increasingly popular, and it looks certain that 2017 will see thousands of us forking out for a device that may soon become as ubiquitous as the satnav.

It is estimated there are already about 840,000 dash cams – including helmet-mounted cameras for motorcyclists – on the roads in the UK.